COLUMN: Is our system too quick to make an arrest?

Friday

Aug 9, 2013 at 12:01 AMAug 9, 2013 at 5:01 PM

By Saul Bizuneh M.D.

In many ways we are a very typical Gaston County family. We live on Main Street in downtown Belmont. We send our 11-year-old daughter to Belmont Central Elementary School and our 4-year-old son to a local preschool. My wife and I have coached and participated in the Belmont sports teams, raised money for local charities and attended our neighborhood festivals and restaurants.

We are a blended family since my wife had a daughter from her first marriage when we met and like many blended families, we have had the challenges and joys of this experience as we deal with visitation rights, vacations, and holidays with a somewhat disagreeable ex-spouse. As we grew our family with two more wonderful children, I've had to explain to my son why "Sissy" does not call me "daddy," or where does "Sissy" go on the weekends. My stepdaughter and I have also celebrated by making up a crazy handshake which we share each time she hits the honor roll or scores a goal. When I married my wife, I chose to take on these challenges and unexpected joys because I love my wife and grew fond of my new daughter and promised to love her and treat her as my own.

Our world came crashing down at 9 p.m. on Saturday, July 20th when three Belmont Police Department Squad cars screeched into our driveway and asked me to leave my porch where I was holding my 8-month-old child. I was placed in handcuffs and taken into police custody without any explanation of the specific charges against me.

My wife was screaming hysterically as my stepdaughter ran to say "He did nothing wrong,", and " My dad made me do it." As I was put into the back of the third patrol car in front of my neighbor's house, my last view was my stepdaughter pounding on the windows of the first police car while my wife tried to keep my 4-year-old son inside the house. I was taken into the Gaston County jail, searched quite extensively, and put in a holding area as I waited for the magistrate to hand me a copy of the warrant for arrest. The scene was surreal and traumatic. They asked, "Does this one speak English?" as I was pulled forward to take a mug shot.

I stared in shocked disbelief at the warrant for arrest. It read on May 10, 2013, the magistrate, D. L. Kayler, felt that there was ďprobable causeĒ to believe that the defendant "threatened to hit the victim (my stepdaughter) by raising his fists and trying to hit her." The complainantís name was, as expected, the ex-husband of my wife.

After my release, my wife and I spoke to our daughter with a mixture of emotion: anger, humiliation, disappointment and fear for our future and security. I was shocked as we never disciplined her with spankings or threatening behavior. My daughter said that on that night in May, she had been upset that I embarrassed her in front of her friends for sneaking out of the house without permission and had complained to her father on the phone that I yelled at her. When her father picked her up for the weekend, he insisted on going to the police (who told him that there was no evidence of any abuse). They, however, directed him to the Gaston County magistrate's office where she was pressured by her father to say what was written on that warrant. I have been labeled many things in my life: son, brother, husband, father, coach, doctor, and now thanks to a very loose definition of probable cause: child abuser.

I hired a lawyer and the charges were immediately dropped by the DA, because of my stepdaughter's testimony and the obvious travesty that caused this warrant to be released in the first place. However, Iíve already been subject to the humiliation of being arrested in front of my house on a busy street in downtown Belmont, having my mug shot displayed in Gaston County Lockup and explaining to my children why the police came to get Daddy.

Iím a clinical medical director for a large group of physicians in Charlotte and had considered coming back to work part-time at our local hospital. Iím a coach of young kids in our park and rec soccer league. I speak to troubled youth in Charlotte about making right decisions.

Despite the charge being dropped, Iíll always have to report a record of an arrest to the North Carolina Medical Board on a yearly basis. The spectacle of this arrest and the silent whispers in our community may derail the reputation that I have spent a lifetime to earn. I worry about these things, but most of all I worry about my family. The wounds of broken trust are fresh and deep and donít mend easily. Weíll seek counseling and we will pray that through time and the grace of god, these wounds may heal.

These events should worry anyone that loves this country and the rights and individual liberties that are guaranteed in our constitution. It should also worry anyone who expects the criminal justice system to work to serve and protect you and your families.

How can the magistrate issue a warrant for arrest in a child abuse case simply based on hearsay testimony and the questioning of an 11-year-old child in front of her father? Before this person decided to take my life and reputation into their own hands, shouldnít there be a simple investigation of said allegations?

If an arrest warrant was issued for the health and safety of the child, why would the Belmont Police Department wait two and a half months to show up at my house which is less than a half mile away? Why would three police squad cars pull up inside my gate and display a traumatic spectacle in front of my family and neighbors considering I have no previous criminal record?

How can a system exist that arrests, humiliates, and destroys characters first prior to asking the first question exist in supposedly the greatest, freest country in the world? Who benefits from such a system that allows one to be charged so easily?

Iím sure that the district attorney in our county would prefer to prosecute cases that have more legitimacy. Iím lucky enough to have the means to obtain an attorney and expunge my record, but what happens to the countless people who may not be able to do that. If we as a community choose to accept this as a necessary way to protect ourselves, then we are all but one false accusation away from seeing ourselves on the other side of the Gaston County lockup.